EN DIALOG OM DET UMULIGE LIVET

'Look on the branch above your head,' said the Gnat, 'and there you'll find a snap-dragon-fly. Its body is made of plum-pudding, its wings of holly-leaves, and its head is a raisin burning in brandy.'

'And what does it live on?'

'Frumenty and mince pie,' the Gnat replied; 'and it makes is nest in a Christmas box.'

'And then there's the Butterfly,' Alice went on, after she had taken a good look at the insect with its head on fire, and had thought to herself, 'I wonder if that's the reason insects are so fond of flying into candles -- because they want to turn into Snap-dragon-flies!'

'Crawling at your feet,' said the Gnat (Alice drew her feet back in some alarm), 'you may observe a Bread-and-Butterfly. Its wings are thin slices of Bread-and-butter, its body is a crust, and its head is a lump of sugar.' 

'And what does it live on?'

'Weak tea with cream in it.'

A new difficulty came into Alice's head. 'Supposing it couldn't find any?' she suggested.

'Then it would die, of course.'

'But that must happen very often,' Alice remarked thoughtfully.

'It always happens,' said the Gnat. 


Jeg mener dette er en av litteraturens store dialoger om det umulige ved å leve. Hvordan kan du livnære deg på lunken te hvis hodet ditt er laget av sukker?

Dette utdraget om insektene i Through the Looking-Glass har jeg funnet på nettet her. Mer fra Alice in Wonderland finner du også på nettstedet til danske Ebbe Munk der du blant anna kan lese mer om det gale te-selskapet. Utrolige romaner dette! Hvilken fantasi hos Lewis Carroll!